IBM® WebSphere® Application Server delivers a set of new features and functions, continuing the iterative delivery of new capabilities that build upon V8.5.5. It offers enhancements to the WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile (Liberty profile) and full profile for development and production environments. Many of these new features are optionally installable features from the WebSphere Liberty Repository. These new features can be used along with those already available through WebSphere Liberty Repository.

Enhancements to WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile include:

Pre-built and extendable Liberty profile Docker images and support for running in Docker containers to accelerate software deployment in hosts containing Docker engines.

Support for the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE 8) - a major feature release contains new features and enhancements targeted to enhance developer productivity and application performance enhancement.

An enhancement to WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile distributed security model to support Single Sign On (SSO) authentication with SPNEGO tokens. This helps to simplify the task of authenticating Windows clients to protected Web resources, which is in addition to the previously announced support for OpenID and OpenID Connect protocols. It helps to simplify the task of authenticating users across multiple trust domains.

WebSphere Application Server Liberty V9 Beta with EE7 is now available and provides several additional components for Java EE 7. It enables developers to rapidly build, deploy, and manage Java applications. The Beta also provides additional functions, such as WebRTC and Log Analytics.

WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile already provides no-charge runtime for use in a development environment. It now adds a no-charge and no-support option for web-centric applications for usage in test and production environments. Usage in test and production environments is restricted to a maximum of 2 GB of JVM heap size across all instances of application servers for the licensee.

New features of the WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile provide enhancements in terms of user experience and high-end resiliency. For developers, new programming models, tools, and custom Docker images on Docker Hub offer enhanced developer experience that accelerates the pace of delivery of engaging applications for cloud, mobile, and web-based applications. Docker Hub now contains a pre-built Docker image that contains WebSphere Application Server for Developers Liberty profile and IBM Java Runtime Environment to help customers get the lightweight Liberty server up and running quickly in their Docker environment with just a single command.

The new set of features and functions for WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 continues to help customers focus on:

Enabling enterprises to build and run the next generation of applications on the cloud and on premises more efficiently, quickly, and cost effectively for distributed applications. Enterprises can create and manage a new generation of portable distributed applications that are rapidly composed of discrete interoperable components, have a dynamic lifecycle, and can scale to run on WebSphere Application Server platform anywhere from the developer's laptop to thousands of servers.

Simplifying configuration and administration of middleware through Intelligent Management capabilities that can help lower the cost of administration of large scale topologies. Intelligent Management capabilities, previously available only with WebSphere Application Server full profile, are now available for WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile and deliver higher levels of application availability and resiliency. Intelligent Management features drive down total cost of ownership while improving overall qualities of service. Highlights of features for administrators include:

Auto-scaling, auto-routing, and Internet scale clustering

Security enhancements

For businesses that need to build, deploy, and manage innovative applications for cloud and mobile, WebSphere Application Server supports a wide range of cloud deployment environments with many options that deliver license mobility between public cloud implementations and on-premises implementations. The expanded choice of deployment options helps customers determine and select the right environment to run and grow their business:

IBM Bluemix enables enterprises to rapidly compose, deploy, and manage cloud applications in test and production environments, while tapping into a growing ecosystem of available services and runtime frameworks. Liberty profile provides the Java runtime solution within Bluemix environment.

IBM SoftLayer® provides infrastructure as a service for off-premise cloud deployment of WebSphere Application Server. The Bring Your Own Software and License (BYOSL) option of WebSphere Application Server allows customers to deploy applications on Softlayer for the best self-service experience in the industry that provides robust automation and consistently efficient procurement of cloud resources.

New features of Liberty profile are delivered in the WebSphere Liberty Repository, an online repository that delivers Liberty profile platform extensions and production support consistent with existing entitlements. These features and functions provide programming model components and tooling for accelerated delivery of innovative applications, operational efficiency, reliability, administration, security, and control. These features can be easily integrated with existing development and production environments.

WebSphere Application Server adds production support for Docker environments. An Ubuntu-based Docker image that contains WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile and Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is provided as both an example of such technology and a starting point for ease of use. In addition, a Dockerfile is provided for the Liberty profile, which customers can use to build their own Docker image. Developers and administrators can easily download and run applications on pre-provisioned hosts (on-premises or cloud hardware) containing Docker engines.

Common annotations for the Java Platform 1.2 (JSR-250) that enable consistency in the annotations (information about the software program) that are used across Java EE components and between Java EE and Java SE.

Liberty profile now supports Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE 8), a major feature release which contains new features and enhancements that are targeted to improve developer productivity and application performance improvements.

WebSphere Liberty Administration Center enhancements

New capabilities allow for easier management of large deployments, as well as providing more information about servers and applications within a collective.

Resource list View. The new list view makes it easier to manage more resources and see more information about them. Rows can be sorted by any value and each row provides an action menu for managing a single resource and there is a multiple selection mode for performing actions on more than one resource at a time.

Tagging and metadata. Resources can be assigned arbitrary tags, as well as an owner, contacts, and notes. Tags make it easy to view and manage user-defined groups of resources; and owner, contacts, and notes provide useful information for administrators. Tags and metadata can be specified within the server package during deployment.

Search capability. The Administration Center now has the ability to search for resources that are based on name, type, status, and tags. It allows customers to quickly find what they are looking for within their collective, no matter how large.

Performance metrics. The Administration Center server and application views now provide the ability to view performance metrics. Customers can view Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI) data and configure the view to see only the data that is of interest to them.

WebSphere Liberty Repository also contains the following enhancement in the area of security for WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile:

The Simple and Protected GSSAPI Negotiation Mechanism (SPNEGO) enables a straightforward, single sign-on (SSO) mechanism for Liberty profile in Kerberos environments. The feature provides capabilities similar to those available for the WebSphere Application Server full profile.

This enhancement is in addition to the previously announced support for OpenID and OpenID Connect protocols to help simplify the task of authenticating users across multiple trust domains.

WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools provide plug-ins from the Eclipse Marketplace that can be installed into an existing Eclipse environment to support development for WebSphere Application Server. WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools deliver a set of tools for developing, assembling, and deploying Java EE, OSGi, Web 2.0, and mobile web applications to WebSphere Application Server, which includes the Liberty profile. In addition, IBM Eclipse Tools for Bluemix provides plug-ins that can be installed into an existing Eclipse environment to assist in integrating the developer's integrated development environment (IDE) with Bluemix. The tools allow you to deploy your JavaScript, WAR (web archive) and EAR (enterprise archive) files, and Liberty profile packaged servers to the Bluemix server right from your Eclipse IDE, or WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools. The tools also allow customers to create and link services to their application and define environment variables as part of the deployment.

WebSphere Application Server Patterns 1.0 adds support for deployment of WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core edition and WebSphere Application Server. These are in addition to currently available WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment edition and allow customers to quickly create and configure their virtualized environment using IBM PureApplication Service on SoftLayer. Support is provided for both the full profile and the Liberty profile. This allows you to quickly extend your applications from on-premises to off-premises, and creates a seamless, hybrid cloud environment.

Migration Toolkit for Application Binaries (Tech Preview) enhancement includes a detailed analysis report to evaluate existing applications for deployment on Liberty profile and IBM Bluemix by using binary scanning. This new report allows administrators and developers to quickly evaluate their applications without accessing the source code and without the need for an Eclipse environment.

Accessibility by people with disabilities

The following features support use by people with disabilities:

Operation by keyboard alone

Optional font enlargement and high-contrast display settings

Screen readers and screen magnifiers tested for use by people with visual impairment

A US Section 508 Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) containing details on the products accessibility compliance can be requested through the IBM website

Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act

WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 is capable as of March 13, 2015, when used in accordance with associated IBM documentation, of satisfying the applicable requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, provided that any assistive technology used with the product properly interoperates with it.

Consistent with the previously announced statement of direction, IBM intends to certify WebSphere Application Server to Java EE 7 full platform compliance. WebSphere Application Server has made good progress towards this with the WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile features that were made available in WebSphere Liberty Repository through the continuous delivery model. WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile intends to complete Java EE 7 full-platform compliance by using this approach. In addition, it remains the intention of IBM to certify WebSphere Application Server full profile to Java EE 7 full-platform compliance.

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Some programs may be licensed on a managed basis only. In that case, the following applies. Instead of the entitlements required for the program directly, licensee must obtain PVU entitlements for this program sufficient to cover the processor cores managed by the program.

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The terms and conditions for WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 remain as previously announced in 213-137, dated April 23, 2013, with the following enhancements to the WebSphere Application Server Program license terms:

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